PR & Zombies!

[Dubbs_Malone]

are you nuts? you wouldn't even have to shoot from APC just run everyone over =GG

might as well use choppers and CAS

but

I would love to see jumpers and tank zombies !

Yes. Tanks or APC's is a very silly idea because it opens up possibilities for SO many ways to exploit. It'd be like playing insurgency against unarmed insurgents.

Even something like an unarmed humvee would create a completely unbalanced situation. Maybe dirt bikes at most, provided the zombies could hurt/kill you while you are riding them. Even then, I think we'd see good dirt bike riders being able to maneuver around any kind of threat.

[AfterDune]

No, a "tank" is a "special zombie" (in Left 4 Dead).

[Pantera]

Start simple just to get the ball rolling :

- "Living" faction are the normal PR ones, so nothing to do here. (better to concentrate on zombies and frankly lets you profit from all the other factions for variety "Zombie world Tour!" )

- Create a zombie faction in the game files
- Create a zombie kit (civi with only hand to hand available) but with either more health or lots of armor (except the head)
- Create basic zombie texture + throw in a cow moo as the sound file ^^

Rules:
- Use Insurgent mode as a base, aim is for survivors to last the longest not to win
- Zombies have low respawn
Use Al basrah as the test map as you have a good mix of terrain features.

Get this up on a locked test server and start eating brains.

Afterward bit by bit add these (for example):
- Zombie kits variety
- Barricade creation system (then make it use "scavenge" points)
- Implement a new zombie spawn system to get that "horde" feeling at times
- Zombie "Vehicules" (if you want more exotic shaped zombies)
- Textures & sounds, but low priority compared to having solid game features.

This man just gave you the starting point.

And i dont think zombies should be too hard to kill. And shouldnt be slow and the options of having super sprint for limited time can be awesome.

Play Omnicide 3 Mod for BF2. I think they got some help from the PR team since it is mentioned in the credits

[Saobh]

Well what's fun in this game ? working together against other groups of players so I see the IA as best as a bit more canon fodder, never the main attraction. It would probably be best to have game designs which help zombie players have a more "horde" mentality (as in relentless in their advance) which can be helped with slower speeds, shorter spawns & even gain points for dying (not much so they aren't attracted to a machine gun nest but enough so that dying in itself isn't much avoided)

IF any of you have played L4D2 and played on the simiancage servers in versus (10vs10 fun & messy as hell ^^), they have interesting system where you get $ for kills and helping which can then be used but mostly as a group help thing rather then purely on an individual basis , examples:
- Buy a special kit for a random player
- Lower respawn rate for all players
- buy health upgrade for all zombies (may be complicated to do)

The idea here is as a zombie you are not important its the group effort which is (commie zombies ftw ! )

But of course all of these ideas are for later , baby steps first !

[rushn]

Well what's fun in this game ? working together against other groups of players so I see the IA as best as a bit more canon fodder, never the main attraction. It would probably be best to have game designs which help zombie players have a more "horde" mentality (as in relentless in their advance) which can be helped with slower speeds, shorter spawns & even gain points for dying (not much so they aren't attracted to a machine gun nest but enough so that dying in itself isn't much avoided)

IF any of you have played L4D2 and played on the simiancage servers in versus (10vs10 fun & messy as hell ^^), they have interesting system where you get $ for kills and helping which can then be used but mostly as a group help thing rather then purely on an individual basis , examples:
- Buy a special kit for a random player
- Lower respawn rate for all players
- buy health upgrade for all zombies (may be complicated to do)

The idea here is as a zombie you are not important its the group effort which is (commie zombies ftw ! )

But of course all of these ideas are for later , baby steps first !

or to promote horde style of playing you can have aura effects
example the more zombies are bunched together the faster they move or the more health they have and etc. ( i am not sure if this is possible in BF2)

[Arc_Shielder]

IF any of you have played L4D2 and played on the simiancage servers in versus (10vs10 fun & messy as hell ^^), they have interesting system where you get $ for kills and helping which can then be used but mostly as a group help thing rather then purely on an individual basis , examples:
- Buy a special kit for a random player
- Lower respawn rate for all players
- buy health upgrade for all zombies (may be complicated to do)

The idea here is as a zombie you are not important its the group effort which is (commie zombies ftw ! )

But of course all of these ideas are for later , baby steps first !

It is interesting and this was implemented years ago in Soldat. It's a classic 2d game but their system goes along with some PR guys are hoping for. You can build deployable assets, you gain money by killing zombies and then buy weapons from a list, etc.

I love some ideas here and I do think adding a few crazy powers to zombies just to bring some variety is good. The whole idea of permanent crouching, prone or standing like representing 3 types of zombies is nice.

I'm only reinforcing here and I'm not going to add anything new to this discussion (not that I don't want to, but rather go straight to the point).

As a mere curiosity, who's willing to go ahead with this?

[rushn]

It is interesting and this was implemented years ago in Soldat. It's a classic 2d game but their system goes along with some PR guys are hoping for. You can build deployable assets, you gain money by killing zombies and then buy weapons from a list, etc.

I love some ideas here and I do think adding a few crazy powers to zombies just to bring some variety is good. The whole idea of permanent crouching, prone or standing like representing 3 types of zombies is nice.

I'm only reinforcing here and I'm not going to add anything new to this discussion (not that I don't want to, but rather go straight to the point).

As a mere curiosity, who's willing to go ahead with this?

I am currently very busy but starting from May 8-12 I can help out with testing and other stuff

I am gonna try to design a map if you guys need one
I might even learn some python code

[RikiRude]

the way i see it players should only control special zombies, but jeez, just play L4D if you want that. the moment a human player steps behind of zombie controls is the moment i lose interest. zombies are supposed to be mindless they have to be NCP.

[rushn]

ok so if this were to happen would it be best to make it a faction or what

I was thinking Zombies faction to start out (after the basics are done we cant practice <insert any faction> vs zombies)
just get the zombies right and we can worry about the civilians later

[Dubbs_Malone]

the way i see it players should only control special zombies, but jeez, just play L4D if you want that. the moment a human player steps behind of zombie controls is the moment i lose interest. zombies are supposed to be mindless they have to be NCP.

Exactly. Human controlled zombies are not zombies at all. That's the bottom line.

[rushn]

Exactly. Human controlled zombies are not zombies at all. That's the bottom line.

not everyone wants coop zombies you don't have to play it if you don't like it

[Alpha.Citizen]

Zombie @ Muttrah: Defend the T-building!

[colodorian]

Ok, after reading everyones suggestions i suggest maybe 2 game modes if people can do the effort with a co-op type and normal pvp type. Insurgency checkpoints and caches, deployables and more limited where you can deploy maybe 10 wires at an one time and they can be destroyed by zombies (cuz you know they dont feel pain...), if you want vehciles maybe a disabled apc at random spots (if its not hardcoded) works a bit maybe like a deployable 50 except you dont build it(make sense?), scatterd human spawns, a lot of blood... , if you can do a civi kit with guns that be good.

Objectives: Survive,a to b, maybe a bit of vanilla conquest where you have to kill a certain amount of humans-zombies (for pvp), a capture the flag sort of thing except you carry idk fuel (lfd2 inspired)

Zombies: For AI limit them to walk yet only maybe a bit raised health?, blood again (just dont over do it), if your going to do classes may i suggest you give the zombies the rope for city maps so they can crawl all over yet they take a bit more damage from falls giving their fraigle (atleast some of them) bodies.

Survivers: Keep most of the kits removing maybe HATs except for the rpg but from caches, a leader class( officer) who can deploy assets, nice death scenes (though thats just a fantasy with a bf2 engine), almost a taliban kit with molotovs and stuff with M9s or any pistols from the civi approach, for normal armies you should lower ammo amounts because the armed forces got more guns than a normal person yet they cant get a constant stream of supplies in because of all the zombies.

Maps: Muttrah and Fallujah with dynamic lighting if you developers are still working on that would be epic, for big open forest maps it maybe a bit harder cant think of anything for those, i dont like the idea of desert maps but if its like part of the enviroment (Al Basrah) the scaterd spawn will work good with this.

And most importantly, zombie sounds and good music, blood (sorry just had to put that in there) could set the mood just nicely. WHEW

[Bob of Mage]

Co-op works best as a allows dumb zombies. You can still have humans on the zombie team, but there are a large number of cannon fodder AI zombies too. It would work best with with larger player counts (64+). Zombie players could use more advanced kits such as a zombie bomber (blows himself up), ranged zombie (throws body parts maybe?), or a scout zombie (give him a hook and FILR of some kind).

Also give the zombie CO things like the old Scan power so the humans can't hide forever.

Vehicles wont' be overpowered if zombies could hurt them. Even if a zombie can only melee an APC as it run him over it will still take damage that it can never repair. Once the zombies make a vehicle start to smoke it's done for. With no more ammo as well as no repairs, vehicles will need to be used wisely or quickly lost.

The game would work well with flags to help guide the AI and players to set areas. The flags would not have to have a set order like AAS does now (it's hard to form front lines in zombie warfare). Holding each point would give each team some thing useful. Zombies would mostly get spawn point, while the human would get things like pickup kits or ammo boxes to spawn. The few human could try to hold a set number of points or move from point to point one step ahead of the overwhelming number of zombies. Human respawns would be good as it allows game to be more fun for the average players, and not just a lucky few.

[rushn]

the scan would be nice maybe done automatically for zombies every couple minutes?

and with 128 servers this can get exciting

once again in 1 week i can help out and or start this

[Pesticide]

you could have the human zombies ( 1-4 ) have special skills like spitting, further jumping, play dead , to make them be able to blend in with normal ai zombies but have a nasty suprize when survivors come near

[illidur]

somebody to lead this would be #1 priority. then comes a zombie skin + attack. then a more advanced gamemode + map.

[Dubbs_Malone]

not everyone wants coop zombies you don't have to play it if you don't like it

I didn't realize you were making all the decisions.

[A.Filikov]

You know it would be good if zombies could revive each other.

Not very zombieish maybe but scarier.

[rushn]

I didn't realize you were making all the decisions.

?????

i dont understand what you are implying
the reason I said that was to have equality so everyone is happy